Australia’s peak union body, the Australian Council of Trade Unions has rejected the Government’s proposed 12-month superannuation guarantee amnesty claiming it allows miscreant employers to escape penalties while gaining a tax advantage.
In a submission filed with the Senate Economics Legislation Committee, the ACTU said the Government’s legislation would allow employers “who have been underpaying their workers for 26 years to not only escape penalties, but to gain a tax advantage”.
“Rather than taking steps to rectifying the ongoing injustice, the Government, once again, takes the side of unscrupulous bosses who have been ripping off their workforce,” it said. “The Superannuation Guarantee Charge has been in place for a generation, despite this the Government is claiming that ignorance is a justifiable defence for breaking the law.”
The ACTU submission said workers suffered real hardship due to unpaid superannuation and this was particularly acute for those immediately facing retirement or recently retired.
“The amnesty does nothing for workers and should be scrapped in favour of new measures allowing workers, their unions, their superannuation funds and the Australian Taxation Office (ATO) to proactively enforce and recover superannuation entitlements,” it said.
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